Awards, Press & Accolades

[The Silver Bullet]

What sort of festivals have you guys had films in? What sort of awards and accolades have you won? I love knowing how the people around me are going, and we might all get a kick [of jealousy] out of seeing how everyone else is faring.

It'd also be interesting to post links to any press clippings or articles or features that regard us and what we're doing, or anything at all like that at all. It'd definitely make for some relevent online reading, too.

[The Silver Bullet]

No one? Anyone?

Okay. This happened to me yesterday, and was originally posted in my BLOG[/size]:

Crank? Cleaned up and shipped out. But it turns out everybody already knew about it anyway. As usual. Mum knew. Dad knew. My brothers knew. The principal knew. Hayley Patton and Claire Ellis [who came to see the screening] knew. My uncle John who drove us to Adelaide knew. Dave knew. Jack knew. Riley knew. The music teacher knew. I didn't know. So fuck you all.

I didn't get to see any Oscar nominated films on Thursday night because we got to Adelaide too late, but that didn't really bother me because it meant I could have an early night sleep, which is a rarity. I was sleeping on couch pillows on the floor of family friends in a sleeping bag that Jack ripped once when he was at my place though, so it wasn't like I slept well or anything. In the morning I woke up and everyone had either gone to work [the man of the house], school [the kids], or to the swimming pool [my brothers and Mum]. So I walked around the house naked for a bit. It was very liberating.

Mum was back at about nine and we went to Marion [a shopping centre] and had some breakfast [sausage and egg McMuffin and a hash brown]. We also bought me a white shirt, because I really wanted a white one underneath the gray one. I spent most of the morning either taping the trials and tribulations of getting to C Space at the Lion Arts Centre or listening to the war on the radio.

When we got to C Space we basically sat on our own and waited for Hayley and Claire [the other sister of Jack to show up]. I decided that interviewing people was a pretty stupid idea; none of the children there had any idea about youth arts, and definitely not about youth filmmaking. Maybe I will interview people when I'm at a real festival of some sort, but the kids there were either morons in search for a day off school, primary school students, or kids with special needs [that last one isn't a joke; see below].

The lights had just started to go down when Claire and Hayley rocked up, and I was glad to see them, because it meant there would be a cheer of sorts when Monte started to play. The first thing on the program, however, was not Crank, but Class Clowns, which was a contest for teenage comedians. You know the feeling when you're watching someone and you actually feel embarrassed to be watching them? You're embarrassed for them, and for yourself. Very, very much. It was like that for most of Class Clowns. There were a few good acts that borrowed heavily from the styles of both Lano and Woodley and Tripod, and one of those groups won, thank Jesus. All the kids from Port Pirie sucked. All the kids who did solo acts sucked. The winning group [and it was indeed a group] gets to perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Which is amazing. Especially considering how badly most of the acts sucked. Not the winners, but you know, most of the others. Claire and Mum didn't even watch most of the acts. And Hayley was too hungover to care much.

Then it came time for both the Crank and Generating Beats finalists. They started of with some animations, which were surprisingly good, especially for primary school students [the winner of this section was actually the overall runner up, which I thought was pretty cool]. Then they had this eleven-year-old kid come on stage and do a hardcore techno set. I kid you not. It was amazing. This kid was scratching the records and everything. He was like this DJ wunderkind. He was awesome. And eleven. I cannot stress this enough.

And then the secondary films started screening. The first one was about a shipwreck that turned out to be [get this for originality] just a dream. It was okay; nothing special; sort of like the film that beat the one we made in Adelaide last time we entered a fly filmmaking contest. Technically, it was terrible. The story sucked. It was brain dead, and so I gathered that people [being judges] probably loved it. In an interesting side note, just before the morning kicked off I noticed that Kym from TSOF was there [and as it happens I have a history with Kym]. I was thinking, "I hope I win this thing Kym. I hope I can rub your nose in it. You bastard."

The second was just your average skateboarding video, just with some more interesting effects; kids find a remote control and [get this for originality] pause and rewind a whole heap of shit. The third film was Monte, and I hated it, taking into consideration that this was the shorter version, with the royalty free music; the version that will never see the light of day ever again. But that wasn't the only reason. They seemed to be getting the sound levels wrong. Half way through a Riley line, they turned it down slightly, and you could no longer really hear the music. I was like, "Turn it up!" and I think the people around me probably heard me. But overall it was the best received of those initial three, and people laughed where they were supposed to, so I was feeling pretty good.

The last film was the film that the special children from the special school made, and of all the films that I was up against, this film struck the most fear into my heart. Why? Because they were special children, and the world just loves them. The film was just of them standing against walls, laughing, and saying why they liked having friends. If any film was going to derail me it was going to be the retard exploitation flick. Half way through it I leaned over to Mum and whispered violently, "If these retards win because they're retarded I'm going to fucking furious." It was a very politically incorrect moment, but you see where I am coming from. The teachers of this school basically set up a camera and made fools [I think] out of their kids. If I was a parent I would have been disgusted. At the end of the film there was a massive cheer, and I felt physically sick.

But as it turned out, they got second place, and I got first. I was delighted. They didn't deserve second place, mind you, and Mum and myself had a lengthy conversation about it later, how wrong it was for the judges to have put it ahead of the other two just because the cast was all intellectually disabled. Not that we bitched for long, of course, because I won, and we were pleased. I was waiting in the isle to walk up and get the best overall film award, because I knew that with the film from the special school out of my life and behind me, no other film would be able to surpass my own [I now know that everyone else already knew that I had won anyway]. I was asked to make a speech, and most of it was taped by Mum, all except the most important part, where I thanked the actors [and this infuriates me to no end because more than anything I regret the fact that Riley wasn't there]. Apparently, half way through the speech Claire whispered to Mum, "Can you see the red light? Is it on?" and Mum freaked out. I haven't watched the video, but I remember what I said. "But most importantly I would like to thank the three people who aren't here, but should be." And then I listed their names. And it is true. They were the most important people. They weren't there. They should have been.

I have got some video of it all that I need to get onto the computer so I can upload it, and I have a few other pictures taken a little after the fact [mainly just a variation of me against a white wall with the trophy, and a few that were taken in the foyer of C Space with Claire and Hayley]. I will try to get that out there as soon as possible, if only because I want you all the see the little DJ kid do his "thang". To close; the final words of my speech, which were a variation of the ones I used when I won two years ago:

"I've said it once, and I'll say it again: next stop, the Oscars."

I have written a press release which I will send out to papers and stuff like that on Monday.

Surely other people have won things?

[Pubrick]

Surely other people have won things?

[Ghostboy]

My film just played this evening at the Dallas Video Festival, which unfortunately (or fortunately) is non-competitive. I haven't won any awards, but I've had my stuff (and stuff I've worked on) play at various festivals. A short film I edited played at the Troma showcase at Cannes last year, which I guess is kinda cool.

[xerxes]

i got an oscar once...  

[MacGuffin]

My scripts have won praise from budgie. That's better than an award.

[The Silver Bullet]

A short film I edited played at the Troma showcase at Cannes last year, which I guess is kinda cool.

Hell yeah, I'd say so. That is excellent.

[©brad]

my trophy case looks like pubrick's, but its not as big.

can't let that shit get you down. you don't make movies to win awards.

[Jeremy Blackman]

A short film I edited played at the Troma showcase at Cannes last year, which I guess is kinda cool.

[The Silver Bullet]

you don't make movies to win awards.

That's like ugly people saying that it's what's on the inside that counts.

[Ghostboy]

Congratulations to you on your own award, Silver Bullet. That's really awesome (I humbly admit I only now read the entirety of your original post). Give us some info on your movie!

[The Silver Bullet]

Thankyou Ghostboy. I will try to avoid sounding arrogant [although I'm sure this thread really hasn't helped, seeing as so many people seem to be against, uh, winning things]. The film is called Three Card Monte and is about three high school students who decide to steal the English exam papers. The film is told by each of the three characters, in retrospect, in three seperate video streams, in three minutes, and all to glorious jazz music. We shot it in three days [everything in threes it seems] as part of a fly filmmaking contest, although I am now going to enter it in some more substantial festivals [such as Resfest, for example].

[RegularKarate]

you don't make movies to win awards.

That's like ugly people saying that it's what's on the inside that counts.

I'm happy for you and everything, but that right there is horse-shit.

[Redlum]

I got into the top 20 here:

www.tensecondfilms.com

Thats it...so far.

[BonBon85]

Congrats, redlum. That's a pretty cool contest. We need more stuff like that on this site.

Speaking of which, what's going on with this:http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=224?